The article "The Role of Spirituality in Healthcare" by Christina M. Puchalski seeks to address how spirituality is a vital element, especially among patients facing loss, suffering, and chronic illnesses. According to the author, most of the technological advancement in the medical field has focused on developing cure-oriented and service-oriented health care. Nonetheless, over the years, some physicians have taken a keen interest in trying to find a link between spirituality and health care. Through spiritual care, the physician will help in serving a patient with spiritual, social, emotional, and physical needs. From the article, the author has drawn a clear correlation between spirituality and health care, by providing credible statistical evidence, real-life accounts and using nationally recognized organizations, but the author has failed to provide a history of the relationship despite mentioning it in the abstract and has a weak conclusion.
Using information from various experts, magazines, real-life experiences, and scholars, the author of the article argues that spirituality is essential in health care. The author has cited that the means through which physicians can help patients in finding their spirituality is though assisting them in finding meaning in their suffering. This is through offering compassionate care. The author has cited Victor Frankl, a psychiatrist who provided lived experiences in a Nazi camp. The author has used one of his quotes, "Man is not destroyed by suffering; he is destroyed by suffering without meaning” (Puchalski, 2001, p.352). This quote has laid down a foundation for the entire article. Physician faces many challenges as they try to assist people in finding meaning and acceptance as they suffer and have chronic illnesses. The author acknowledges that treatment is not always probable for all diseases. However, there is still another option for healing through helping patients to find some form of spirituality. The author has been able to connect various pieces of evidence with Victor Frankl's quote to show that, indeed, helping one overcome suffering is by ensuring that the patients accept their illnesses and have peace with their life.
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The article’s theoretical value is the attention the author has placed on some of her patients. In most cases, the theoretical values are derived from other sources or real-life situations. These types of values are not obtained from practical results gathered from an experiment. Additionally, the author has been able to use real-life experiences in supporting the research topic and making a connection between the two main variables; spirituality and health. From the article, the author provides an example of a 28-year-old patient infected by HIV. The patient had lost all hope in life, but the author encouraged her to seek assistance from a chaplain who assisted her in addressing her spiritual issues. Likewise, to show why spirituality is vital towards health care, the author provides another case involving a patient with irritable bowel diseases and had no meaning in life. However, with time, the author assisted the patient, and she sought counseling and had positive coping with her condition. From these examples, it is clear that spirituality has a vital role to play in enhancing health care.
Another crucial point raised in the article is the various spirituality studies and their primary focus, in this case, mortality, coping, and recovery. According to the author, the impact of spirituality in health care is not only studies by physicians but also other professionals and psychologists the author has clearly outlined how each scholar has provided findings to each of the three elements. The author notes that people who tend to have higher spirituality levels will live longer as compared to those who lack any form of spirituality. Moreover, patients with higher spirituality levels have better-copping abilities with life stresses, pain, and illness. Furthermore, spirituality tends to help patients recover from surgery and illnesses. To reinforce this information, the author has not only provided and cited many scholars, but there is also enough statistical evidence to support the various claims made throughout the article.
The author has also provided her points with varying degrees of success in that she ah allowed for some diplomatic reasoning to creep into the foundations of her arguments. The author states that “….some spiritual stances can lead to negative coping: more depression, poorer quality of life, and callousness towards others” (Puchalski, 2001, p.355).This indicates that the author does not want to force her arguments on the readers. Instead, she has brought about another twist to her arguments. The author acknowledges that one cannot fully force all physicians and patients to believe that spirituality is vital towards ailing their suffering, chronic illnesses, or pain. For some patients, they might view their suffering a seeing punishment from God. The author has thus ensured that she displays her argument in a manner that will appeal both to her supporters and critics. One can, therefore, say the author is not biased as she acknowledges there is still another side to her assertions.
However, despite the author clearly outlining her arguments, she has failed to provide the readers with a chronological account or history of the relationship between spirituality and health care. In her abstract, the author has cited that “In the past few decades physicians have attempted to balance their care by reclaiming medicine's more spiritual roots…” (Puchalski, 2001, p.352). The abstract always serves as a snippet of what entire research is going to be about. There is a need to ensure that whatever is mentioned in the abstract, one can find it in the body section of the research. From the article, one cannot point out some research or physician accounts for the role of spirituality in health care.
A conclusion is essential as it gives an author an opportunity of making a last impression on the reader. In the article, the author provided a conclusion at the end of her article, where she summarizes her research in one sentence. There are also a few recommendations outlined by the author in the last paragraph, which is a call to action for physicians to ensure they address the patient’s spiritual needs to improve their lives and help them overcome suffering, loss, pain, and chronic illnesses. The conclusion is not extensive as she has only briefly explained her results. However, she has not made any logical generalization, pointed out implications and limitations. Moreover, she has not provided a suggestion for further research despite stating in her article that the relationship between spirituality and health care is an active area of research today.
Generally, the entire article has been written with the interest of the patients in mind, the author. The author is a practicing medical doctor, she has encountered patients who have suffered, and the only option she had to give them was spiritual strength. This indicates the article is written form a real-life experience by the doctor. It has identified the various means through which physicians can provide spiritual assistance to a patient and the multiple advantages of the same. The article also identifies numerous national recognitions of why spiritual care is vital by mentioning the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health care Organization, America College of Physicians, and the AAMC. These accredited and nationally recognized agencies help cement the author’s arguments as being credible and reliable. Nonetheless, the article has a few flaws as it has a weak conclusion and has failed to provide a history of the relationship between the two variables despite mentioning it in the abstract.
Reference
Puchalski, C. M. (2001). The role of spirituality in health care. Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings, 14 (4), 352-357.
